


Wordless

by ImaginationCubed



Series: Jaith Anniversary Week 2020 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Jaith Anniversary Week 2020, Lack of Communication, M/M, Memories, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25752487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaginationCubed/pseuds/ImaginationCubed
Summary: There's a past neither of them can deny. One full of stolen kisses and petty arguments. Good and bad days that they somehow made it through together.But, when they lock eyes for the first time in years, it's hard not to hope for a future too.Prompt - Day 1: Past/Future
Relationships: James Griffin/Keith (Voltron)
Series: Jaith Anniversary Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868125
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Wordless

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to try and practice a little with present tense writing since I always default to past tense. Anyway, I figured I'd try and write a little something for all the days of Jaith Anniversary Week, even if I'm painfully late finishing said pieces. So, here's a small drabble for the Day 1 prompt of "Past/Future"

It’s the moment Keith appears at the Garrison, older, scarred, and mature that James lets old memories flood his brain.

In some, he’s in middle school again, curious and frustrated with the reserved boy who seemed to want anything but to make friends despite James’s best efforts. In others, it’s pitiful reminders of nights from as recently as a few months ago, laying awake as his train of thought circled in the same direction, wondering about Keith’s fate. Where he was, who he was with, or if he was still walking among them.

Even with the universe answering his biggest questions, it isn’t as if his urges are quelled. Not in the slightest. Especially not when it’s also the moment every complicated feeling James had shoved deep down into the parts of him no one was meant to see decides to resurface. And not when all the two of them can do in the presence of superiors is stare silently.

Because said memories aren’t just bland moments of a casual friendship. They’re vivid, like Keith prepping in the library for another test with him, and intense, like he never stopped touching Keith in the most intimate ways. A movie reel of the best and the worst of their days, refusing to dissipate even with the years of absence from each other’s lives. The fights, the hushed conversations, the first kisses. Each and every part plays out in his mind as if Keith never left. Because maybe physically he did, but emotionally there is a part of Keith that never left him, a little part that latched on and refused to ever leave him even when things fell apart.

After all, nights of stargazing from the rooftops and pretending ‘friends’ was an appropriate label for them is not something that agrees to go away easily. Not when everything spiraled so rapidly. Not when one day the two of them were encroaching on the most personal of each other’s feelings and the next Keith’s behavior did nothing but descend back into his former patterns of delinquency.

Not when the last time he saw Keith included the boy packing what little he owned.

It’s a feeling of guilt almost when Keith looks back at him. It’s unwarranted, James knows that, though it doesn’t stop it from bubbling in his chest when violet eyes connect with his. There were too many words left unsaid, too many nights laying awake contemplating a visit after curfew, too many regrets for failing to carry out unrealistic scenarios that could’ve made Keith stay. It makes little sense. James knows that too, but a small part of him can never seem to rid himself of the thought that he could’ve done something in that moment. He wasn’t the one who punched Iverson that day, but the idea that he failed Keith all those years ago has always been consistent.

All he can do is turn his head away and rejoin the rest of his squadron. There’s no room for love right now. Not with a war blazing above their heads. But it doesn’t change the feelings stirring within him. Maybe there will be a day where he can rekindle what he had with Keith. Where he can learn where he’s been, where his scars came from, where their lives might go from here.

Digesting that said day is not now is difficult, excruciatingly so. But the fact that they’re closer than they’ve been in years, even if neither of them has spoken yet, leaves room for hope. It wouldn’t be today, nor tomorrow, but there would be a future, and all he can do is aim for Keith to be in it.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk Jaith to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/imaginationcubd/)


End file.
